Father makes birthday plea for son missing since Sunday

Daniel Zamlen, an 19-year-old freshman at the University of St. Thomas from Eveleth, Minn., has been missing since early Sunday when he's last known to have been speaking on his cell phone with a friend before the phone cut out. Zamlen is 6 feet tall, 175 pounds, and blond hair and blue eyes. On Saturday night, April 4, 2009, he was wearing a blue jacket and blue jeans. He is a type 1 diabetic, so there is concern that he might be in need of medical attention. (Courtesy of University of St. Thomas)

On his son's 19th birthday, Dale Zamlen thanked volunteers who have spent four days searching for the missing University of St. Thomas freshman, and he put out a renewed plea to community members to help look.

"He's down in that area some place," Zamlen said at an emotional news conference Wednesday afternoon at St. Thomas, referring to Mississippi River Boulevard between St. Clair Avenue and campus. "I'm just asking for your help to find my son."

Search dogs have picked up Zamlen's scent on paths that wind through the bluffs in that area, said Colleen Luna, St. Paul Police senior commander for the western district. The search is now focusing on the bluffs, Luna said.

Much of the area is difficult to access on foot. Fire department personnel have rappeled into some areas, she said. The river has been too fast and high to get a boat in, but officials were hoping to launch one Thursday to allow rescue personnel to scan any unexamined areas of the bluffs.

Zamlen was last heard from Sunday in a 2:20 a.m. cell phone call made from Mississipi River Boulevard and St. Clair. He had been at a party nearby that evening and had reportedly been drinking.

Zamlen is a Type 1 diabetic, and mixing alcohol with that condition is "a bad combination," his father said.

Daniel Zamlen has an insulin pump, but his father said it's not clear whether the supply would have lasted this long. "His life's in danger," said Dale Zamlen.

Advertisement

By now, "he's borderline comatose or maybe in a coma," and anyone who sees him should call 911.

If the insulin supply has run out, the device will beep very loudly, according to a Web site — finddan.org — set up for the search.